Remembering D-Day

On June 6, 1944, Allied Forces (U.S., England & Canada) succeeded in surprising Hitler, and the Wehrmacht, with their landing at Normandy.

Days later, Hitler still believed it was a diversion, and that the main landing would be at Calais. By then the Allies had landed 1 million troops and 500, 000 tons of material. So desperate had the situation become for the Germans that Field-Marshal Rommel told Hitler “the West would inevitably smash through the Normandy front and break into the homeland.” He urgently requested that the war be brought to an end. Hitler responded to Rommel’s assessment with: “Rommel has lost his nerve; he’s become a pessimist. In these times only optimists can achieve anything.” Adolf Hitler, John Toland (Doubleday, 1976).

The war with Germany could have ended in the days after D-Day. On July 20, 1944 an attempt was made on Hitler’s life. Many of his top generals knew it was over and would have handed Hitler over if the Allies had been willing. There was even a deal in place with the U.S. for Stalin to join the fight against Japan as soon as Hitler had been defeated. Churchill and Stalin had other ideas. As a result the wars in Europe and the Pacific waged on and were more costly, with millions more lives being lost because of sordid leadership.

“The United States had given us the most handsome assistance in the fight against Germany.” Winston Churchill

Had the U.S. stayed out of the WWI (The Great War) there would have been no Hitler or Holocaust. By appeasing Churchill, Roosevelt kept England from settling with Germany (Germany tried in 1940), which would have been better for the world.